{"id":2816,"date":"2012-01-14T02:10:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T02:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2012-01-14T02:10:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-14T02:10:20","slug":"kaiser-southern-california-half-marathon-irvine-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/kaiser-southern-california-half-marathon-irvine-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaiser Southern California Half Marathon, Irvine, California"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You can tell by this picture I was very nervous.<\/p><\/div>\n

Race Day Weight: 282 lbs.(127.9 kls)
\nMiles: 13.1 (20.92 kms)
\nClock Time: 2:58:33
\nChip Time: 2:55:20
\nOverall Place: 3299\/3960
\nAge Place (males 35-39): 132\/135<\/p>\n

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More than five years ago I did my first race; it was the Agoura Hills 5K (3.1 miles) race. I didn’t know anything about racing back then. I weighed 305, saw some cheesy sports movie and all the sudden I thought I was Ryan Hall<\/a> or something. After about 41 minutes (of all downhill running) I found out I wasn’t. I barely made it over that finish line, but yet, I did!<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2007 and I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon. I don’t even remember the last 3 miles of that race. All I really remember is waking up in a medic’s tent yelling at a doctor telling him there is no way he was going to put an IV in my arm until someone handed me a finisher’s medal.\u00a0 I didn’t remember the last three miles, but I knew that I had crossed the finish line. I couldn’t walk for a week after that race. My feet were shredded, I didn’t know if I would ever try another race again, but, I did.<\/p>\n

I doubt anyone remembers, but back in 2010 I did a series of blogs that I called “Fat Man Running<\/a>.” It is just as well that no one remembers them because I totally failed; I only ran three weeks and then I stopped. Mostly, it was too embarrassing having to report continual weight gain. Then, on a random Monday (9\/20\/11), I started walking again. It was slow, but for some strange reason, I kept it up. I don’t know why this time was different. I didn’t blog about it. I didn’t plan anything. I just walked. It wasn’t until 4 weeks of walking that I decided that I should do something more, and that was when the idea of the half marathon hit me. (Denise’s note: actually that’s when he came to his wife and said that he needed a race in about January, and I came up with the Irvine Half.\u00a0 Why yes, I am taking credit.)<\/p>\n

At first I was scared.\u00a0 Although I finished the only half marathon I entered, it wasn’t a very pleasant idea to know that I could potentially faint again, or that I might shred my feet and hobble myself again. What if I couldn’t find the time to train and didn’t even want to show up to the race (thus wasting the $60 entrance fee)? What if I got out on the track and they told me that I was too big and then I wasted $60 dollars plus the gas to get to Irvine?? The questions just got bigger and bigger. The rational me screamed “what the heck are you thinking?!!” But there I was, 4 days a week training for a half marathon.<\/p>\n

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We carbo loaded right before the race on ramen.<\/p><\/div>\n

They say races are mind over matter, but I think this was a case of matter over mind. I think my body wanted to do this race, because my head certainly didn’t. I can’t explain it very well, other than it is like all the cells in my body (except for my brain) have gotten a group consciousness and they are now demanding better working conditions.<\/p>\n

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I wore this medal all day.<\/p><\/div>\n

Thankfully for me, this half marathon was much better than the last half marathon. Not only did I finish it, but I smashed my PB (Personal Best) by more than 20 mins. I was very tired after the race, but I do remember all of it, and I didn’t even come close to fainting.\u00a0\u00a0I don’t have many pictures of the race, but lest you think I wasn’t out there you can check out the Official Photos<\/a>\u00a0(looking at them I think they make for great black mail).<\/p>\n

I think this is going to turn out to be an interesting road. My body isn’t ready to be quiet yet. In fact, a couple of days after finishing this race, I signed up for another half marathon race in June. There is also a distinct possibility for something bigger in Oct. I would tell you what that was, but there are currently two different options and I will not know for sure which option I will take until February. It should be a very interesting year, where it ends up is anyone’s guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Race Day Weight: 282 lbs.(127.9 kls) Miles: 13.1 (20.92 kms) Clock Time: 2:58:33 Chip Time: 2:55:20 Overall Place: 3299\/3960 Age Place (males 35-39): 132\/135   More than five years ago I did my first race; it was the Agoura Hills …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,26],"tags":[8,397,446,466,648,1209,808],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jhealth","category-running","tag-california","tag-half-marathon","tag-irvine","tag-kaiser","tag-permanente","tag-running","tag-southern-california"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpedroza.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}